my tattoos

I finally did it! I'm finally a super-cool tattoo girl who could totally ride a motorcycle and wear leather pants everywhere!
[Jk, I already had leather pants and I wore them to Thanksgiving brunch, and I can barely drive a car] 
I was so scared, seriously SO scared to get my tattoos but I absolutely love them now and I can't believe I waited so long to get them 😍

So here's the tattoo story:
The Arabic tattoo says, "الناس الأحرار سوف يحررون الناس" which means. "Free people free people". I heard someone use this in a sermon a couple of years ago and I fell in love with the phrase. It's basically the opposite of the phrase "hurt people hurt people" - hurting people tend to hurt others around them. But people who are free, living in Jesus's freedom, can free other people. This phrase means so much to me because for years I felt like a prisoner of all the pain and effects of sexual abuse. I felt like I would never be free or feel like myself again, but Jesus's healing made my heart more free than it ever was before. God was able to take all the ugliness and pain and chains of abuse and give me freedom; He showed me that he could take all that ugliness and pain and repurpose it for me to help others, and that's lead me to start my new ministry for sexual assault care training, The Real Truth Ministries. 
I chose to get the tattoo in Arabic because Egypt is my favorite place in the world, and my first trip to Egypt was the beginning of freedom for me. 💖

My second tattoo is on my hand and it's the initial "N" for my grandmother, Nancy. My grandma passed away last month, and I wanted to get her initial to remind me she's with my every step of the way and remember her legacy.  She worked hard every day during a time when women in the workplace were looked down on. She made God and her family the most important things in her life. Her love saw no boundaries and she loved people and saw through the lies society spoke of them and kept her hospital door open to everyone. She taught me the importance of standing up, using her voice, and using her privileges to help those without one. She listened to everyone’s opinions and didn’t shut people away because they were different or had differing ideas. She told me I could be anything I wanted to be, and she was there to support every step I took. She was kind, loving, and sharp as a tack. She relied on God to get her through the difficult days when life was too difficult and heavy and taught me to do the same. She married the love of her life, my grandfather, even though there were societal walls to break down and pressure from the people she loved that frowned upon intercultural and interethnic marriage, and they were faithfully married for 63 years. She inspires me so much and I strive to be a strong, godly, loving woman like she was who doesn’t care what the world says and continues to love people fearlessly, who works hard, who knows she can be anything, who loves God relentlessly, and who takes care of others.